In this Book
- Truth and Democracy
- Book
- 2012
- Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press
- Series: Democracy, Citizenship, and Constitutionalism
Political theorists Jeremy Elkins and Andrew Norris observe that American political culture is deeply ambivalent about truth. On the one hand, voices on both the left and right make confident appeals to the truth of claims about the status of the market in public life and the role of scientific evidence and argument in public life, human rights, and even religion. On the other hand, there is considerable anxiety that such appeals threaten individualism and political plurality. This anxiety, Elkins and Norris contend, has perhaps been greatest in the humanities and in political theory, where many have responded by either rejecting or neglecting the whole topic of truth.
The essays in this volume question whether democratic politics requires discussion of truth and, if so, how truth should matter to democratic politics. While individual essays approach the subject from different angles, the volume as a whole suggests that the character of our politics depends in part on what kinds of truthful inquiries it promotes and how it deals with various kinds of disputes about truth. The contributors to the volume, including prominent political and legal theorists, philosophers, and intellectual historians, argue that these are important political and not merely theoretical questions.
Table of Contents
- Part I: Opinion and Agreement
- 1. Concerning Practices of Truth
- pp. 19-53
- 2. Truth and Politics
- pp. 54-75
- 3. Truth and Disagreement
- pp. 76-86
- 4. “Speaking Power to Truth”
- pp. 87-94
- Part II: Authority and Justification
- 6. Democracy as a Space of Reasons
- pp. 114-129
- 7. Truth and Democracy: Theme and Variations
- pp. 130-145
- 9. Too Soon for the Counterreformation
- pp. 154-157
- 10. Response to Norris, Lynch, and Galston
- pp. 158-162
- Part III: Decision and Deliberation
- 11. Democracy and the Love of Truth
- pp. 165-180
- Part IV: Truth and Public Reasons
- 15. Truth and Public Reason
- pp. 217-250
- 16. The Truth in Political Liberalism
- pp. 251-271
- List of Contributors
- pp. 345-346
Additional Information
Copyright
2012